Sharon Stone Says She Wasn’t Told While Filming ‘Basic Instinct’ That Her Privates Would Be On-Screen

Sharon Stone said she didn’t know her vagina would be shown in the iconic interrogation scene from Basic Instinct, according to an excerpt from Stone’s upcoming memoir published in Vanity Fair.

Stone talked about her experience landing the role and shooting the 1992 film. She said that even though the film helped her become a star, the experience gave her “hideous nightmares.” She told the story of the first time she saw the interrogation scene after filming.

“After we shot Basic Instinct, I got called in to see it. Not on my own with the director, as one would anticipate, given the situation that has given us all pause, so to speak, but with a room full of agents and lawyers, most of whom had nothing to do with the project,” she wrote. “That was how I saw my vagina shot for the first time, long after I’d been told, ‘We can’t see anything – I just need you to remove your panties, as the white is reflecting the light, so we know you have panties on.'”

Stone acknowledged that there are many viewpoints on this topic, but said “since I’m the one with the vagina in question, let me say: The other points of view are bullshit.”

Stone said after viewing the scene, she went to the projection booth, slapped director Paul Verhoeven, then went to her car and called her lawyer, Marty Singer.

“Now, here is the issue. It didn’t matter anymore. It was me and my parts up there. I had decisions to make,” she wrote. “Marty told me that they could not release this film as it was. That I could get an injunction. First, at that time, this would give the film an X rating. Remember, this was 1992, not now, when we see erect penises on Netflix. And, Marty said, per the Screen Actors Guild, my union, it wasn’t legal to shoot up my dress in this fashion. Whew, I thought.”

Stone said she ultimately decided to let them use the scene the way it was.

“Why? Because it was correct for the film and for the character; and because, after all, I did it,” she wrote.

Verhoeven has denied that Stone didn’t consent to her crotch being filmed.

“Sharon is lying,” he told ICON in 2017. “Any actress knows what she’s going to see if you ask her to take off her underwear and point there with the camera.”